Besides the government’s quiet efforts to secure a seat-adjustment arrangement between all the major political parties for Senate elections well ahead of the schedule, a marathon meeting was held on Monday at the headquarters of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to complete necessary arrangements to hold polls according to the government’s directive ahead of their respective schedules.
A source in the ECP told Pakistan Today that polling for Senate elections might be held after February 12 if the government failed to achieve seat-adjustment formula between major political parties.
“Under Article 224 of the constitution, the polling for the Senate elections may be held after February 12. However, the oath taking of the winning senators would be held on March 13 per the constitutional provisions. In any case, the ECP would complete all necessary tasks well in advance of the schedule of Senate and general elections in the country whenever the ECP is called upon to do so,” the source said, adding that to date, the ECP had received no written summary from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat to hold Senate polls in advance of schedule. An official handout however stated that the meeting was held to review the progress on various urgent and important issues/activities essentially required to be completed well before initiating the process for the conduct of upcoming Senate as well as general elections in the country.
Following the meeting, the ECP issued a handout reflecting 19 decisions taken during the meeting. ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan said the commission was informed that training for holding Senate elections for the ECP officers (BPS-18 and above) was scheduled on January 24 to 27.
All efforts were being made by NADRA to complete the exercise with regards to preparation of Preliminary Electoral Rolls (PER), followed by Final Electoral Rolls (FER), as soon as possible and a report in this regard has been sent to the Supreme Court. SMS facility was being provided by the ECP to the registered voters for checking their entries as voters in the relevant electoral rolls, he said, adding that as decided by the ECP in its meeting held on November 30, 2011, SMS charges for the public to check their voting details had been fixed at Rs 2 per SMS.
The commission was informed that a proposal with regards to amending the law for providing the name, CNIC number, photographs and to obtain thumb impression of voters in digitised ink only on the electoral rolls to be used by the presiding officers, was being sent to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.
As regards the printing of electoral rolls with photo and thumb impression, it was discussed that photograph of the voter and column for thumb impression of the voter, to be used at the time of election by the presiding officers only and the remaining required number of sets, without photograph and thumb impression of the voter will be discussed with all major political parties in a meeting, to be held soon.
It was decided that the deputy election commissioners (DECs) would work as revising authorities in their respective districts while for the remaining districts in their division, lists for appointment of revising authorities from amongst the federal government, provincial and district government officers had been obtained through the PECs, that was being scrutinised and the ECP would also arrange orientation for these revising authorities.
As the population census report is to be published by the PCO in second half of 2013, as informed by them and as no fresh delimitation was to be carried out for next general elections, therefore, the commission decided that the PECs shall submit proposals for re-description of constituencies within 10 days. The proposals received from the PECs would be placed before the ECP for further consideration and decision. It would be purely an internal exercise and would be completed by end of February.
In the context of implementation of the Supreme Court directions with regard to fresh delimitation in Karachi, the PEC, Sindh informed that meetings were in progress with respective provincial authorities. It was decided that the draft code of conduct for political parties and candidates, media, observers, law enforcing agencies and polling agents, would be placed before the stakeholders in a consultative meeting to be held shortly. A meeting with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) would be held on January 11 regarding controlling election expenses and in continuation with the previous meeting held a few months ago to chalk out further course of action to streamline political financing.
The Printing Corporation of Pakistan and eth Security Printing Corporation had been asked to arrange non-market paper containing special security features including watermark, to preclude the possibility of printing of bogus ballot paper by any quarter. It was decided that efforts would be made to set up permanent polling stations so that the voters could be assigned polling stations well before the elections. The lists of permanent polling stations would be placed on the ECP’s website for information of general public well in advance of an election.
